Regarding this Shoshone petroglyph, John Rees notes that the
symbol "represents the shaman...The symbol for "mystery" is
the ascending spiral which is converted to a zig-zag motion when connected
with a person or individual...[as in this figure] where it is directed toward
the earth denoting an appeal to... mother-earth" (Rees: ISU Archives).
Image courtesy Idaho State University Library, Special Collections Department,
Minnie Howard Papers, #MC001-23-03 Portion of Plate XIX.

"Crow Old Man" of the
Lemhis, was the Indian name of Ben Ariwite also known as the "Last" Shoshone
Medicine Man
The sentiment of "last" is misleading, typical of memorializing a
tradition though practices continue.
[Rod Ariwite, current Chairman of the Lemhi tribe, is the great-grandson of
Ben Ariwite.]
Image courtesy Lemhi County Historical Society.

"What is termed a doctor of medicine by the white man was called by the
Shoshonis "nat-soo-gant", meaning one possessed of the knowledge
of using healing and curative objects. This knowledge the Indian gained
by actual experience. When a young man reached the warrior age he was expected
to find his "boo-ha-gant", meaning one possessed of a helper, which
was done by the youth absenting himself to a secret place until through
some dream or vision, an object appeared to him which would help him through
life. This object might be anything which he could tie up in a small buckskin
sack and wear secretly about his person or it might be some animal or vegetable
in which case some part, perhaps, could be utilized as a talisman to carry
about with him, as the claw of an eagle or bear or beaver or badger which
would endow him with a certain amount of dominion over the sky or earth
or water or the underground regions, or it might be a vegetable root prepared
in various ways. This "boo-ha-gant" must be kept a profound secret
and known only to himself, otherwise it would loose its efficiency. This
helper aided him in his labors here on earth and its potency extended no
further. Its influence might go so far as to aid him in treating other person's
afflicted" (ISU archives, Rees Collection).

The Great Medicine Man
and the Spring

Quishindemi, "Bob-tail-horse," told the following legend to
J. A. Harrington in 1925:

"Long years ago, a great sickness fell upon the Indians throughout
the Snake River Valley. The Shoshoni chiefs and sub-chiefs called upon a
medicine man to tell them what to do for their people. The medicine man's
name was Tenupah Dome-up, which means "Man-from-the-Sky."
Man-from-the-Sky went into his lodge alone, opened his medicine bundle,
and performed his sacred ceremonies. Then he returned to the chiefs and
said to them, "Bring all those who are ill to my tipi tomorrow morning,
very early, I will take them on a journey of five suns." Then he led
the chiefs up the trail along the Snake River toward the Three Tetons."

"After five suns, the medicine man called a halt. At the place he
chose, he made his sacred tipi and stayed in it for several hours. When
he came out, he advised those who were sick to follow him next day at sunrise
to a place which the spirit had shown him. The next morning, just as the
stars were disappearing, all who were ill started from their tipis. They
were helped by their friends and relatives. All followed the medicine man
to a place in the hills not far from where they had made camp the night
before. Here Man-from-the-Sky told them all to stop; he ordered the sick
people to remove their clothes. Then dressed in his ceremonial robe and
carrying in his hand his medicine bundle, he led the people to a creek.
"Healing waters," he said, "will soon flow from a rock that
is up on the side of the hill. They will soon reach the place where your
sick people are. When the healing waters reach you, drink from them and
bathe in them. They will not flow long. I will soon stop them." So
he went up to the rock on the hillside above the place where the Indians
were waiting. With something from his sacred bundle he tapped the rock.
Then he spoke secret, mystic words. Instantly the water flowed from the
rock in great quantities. Soon it reached the part of the creek where the
sick people waited. They drank from it and they bathed in it. Then the medicine
man tapped the rock again and the water soon ceased to flow.

"After awhile, he told them that he could cause the healing waters
to flow again. Again he took something from his sacred bundle, tapped the
rock, and spoke the mystic words. Again a great quantity of water flowed
from the rock into the creek. The Indians drank from it and bathed in it.
Then the medicine man caused it to stop. All day the ceremony continued
at intervals. When the stars came out, Man-from-the-Sky stopped the ceremony
and the healing waters for the night. All the people returned to their camp,
as the medicine man directed. By the next morning most of them had been
cured of their illness. Those who were still sick were again taken to the
spot in the creek where they had been the previous day. Again the waters
flowed and ceased to flow in obedience to the tapping and the words of the
medicine man.
When the people awoke the next morning, every sickness was gone. All had
been healed by the healing waters. On the third day the Indians returned
to their homes entirely cured.

"Do not visit the healing waters alone," the medicine man warned
them. "Never go there without me. Those are sacred waters. Only I control
them. Anyone who goes there alone is sure to die." Forever after, the
Indians held the place in reverence and in awe. No one is known to have
visited it again. And Tenupah Dome-up became known as one who could control
the forces of nature. He was henceforth the greatest medicine man of the
Shoshoni people" (Clark: 1966).